Alderley Edge held on for a draw on Saturday against Didsbury’s spin bowling and were thankful to get away with a 15 points to nine split.

This was a match largely dominated by Didsbury’s captain Paul Sperring, who not only scored an unorthodox 100 not out, but went on to claim four wickets when Alderley batted after tea.

It is a worrying time for Edge with captain and talisman Jason Whittaker suffering a serious looking Achilles injury that both restricted his bowling and meant that he had to bat later in the match with a runner.

Whittaker has been the mainstay of the Edge pace attack for the last three seasons and Alderley will be severely affected if he has to have any significant period out of the game.

Edge have matches coming up in the league, the Cheshire Cup, the National Knock Out and the County League Twenty20 in a hectic schedule of matches that could see their season slip away in a relatively short period of time. It’s now up to the other players to meet the challenges ahead without being able to rely on the regular haul that Whittaker seemingly takes in every match.

Edge contributed to their own difficulties in this match by having two run-outs, one of them the crucial wicket of in-form opener Mark Currie that turned this game in favour of the visitors.

Didsbury boast a very useful spin attack of Sperring and Cheshire left-arm spin bowler Jonny Fawcett and they took all of the other seven Edge wickets to fall.

Alderley were however indebted to a useful 33 from Jon Steele that held the middle order together after Currie was run out for a classy 51.

Edge have now dropped to fifth in the league and there are relatively few points between second and 11th in a very competitive league.

Next Saturday Alderley face a difficult trip to face a Chester team that scored well over 300 runs on Saturday for the loss of only three wickets.